Baylor Girls

A few years ago when Will interviewed with Baylor we bought the girls Baylor bears and they wanted shirts to match their bears. So, when Will was recently in Texas for school, he bought the girls Baylor t-shirts and Luke an infants hat. Here they are showing off their new t-shirts.

Family Fun

On Sunday Steve and Angela and the kids came up to visit. Parker wanted to see Uncle Will play Guitar Hero. I have to say thanks to Steve and Angela for cooking and feeding my family. Otherwise, they would have just had sandwiches (again)! Here are a few pictures from the day.

The Party

Today we let Isabelle have two of her friends from church come over for her party. Here are some of the pictures. The cake was already posted. They got to swim and eat cake and open presents.

Giraffe Birthday Cake

Here is Isabelle's Giraffe Birthday cake for her party tomorrow. We'll put up more pics tomorrow. This is just the cake that I did.

Can Anyone Find the Hidden Mickey?

Here is a profile of Luke. While doing the ultrasound, I kept seeing little bubble looking things and several times they looked like little hidden mickeys. During the big ultrasound on Friday, the tech told me that that was the three chambers of the umbilical cord. That was a neat ultrasound. We could see Luke moving his mouth and sucking as well has him blinking his eyes. We got to see one of his ears and the peach fuzz floating in the amniotic fluid. He does have a little bit of hair, but not a lot. Anyway, I thought Will would appreciate the hidden mickey in this photo.

This Week

I had to leave Mobile Wednesday to come home for a doctor's appointment/ultrasound/NST. The doctor just wanted to check the size of Luke because I am a gestational diabetic. Well, instead of being big, he measured small (in the 10th percentile). And apparently with gestational diabetics there is a tendency for the placenta to give out and quit feeding and nourishing the baby. So, to be on the safe side, I was sent to a high risk obstetrician at Baptist Hospital named Dr. Maher on Friday, the 10th. After a three hour doctor visit with the longest ultrasound ever (they have a more detailed and advanced machine and their techs take a lot more measurements and check blood flow from me to the baby, in and out of the baby's heart, baby's cerebellum fluid, etc.) the doctor told me that Luke is measuring small but he is perfectly healthy at this point. I don't have to go back to him, but I do have to keep going in and doing the Non-Stress Tests once a week. So, yippee for that. Also, at my Wednesday appt. with my doctor she told me that I am 3 centimeters dialated already. Oh, and Luke is measuring at 5 lbs. 7 oz. right now. The doctor did say that any time after the 15th, Dr. Doyle could decide that she doesn't want to wait any longer and take him early b/c it is safer for him to be in a nursery and monitored than to have the placenta quit working. I have included a picture of Luke's face from my ultrasound on Wednesday. I know I am not as good at taking pictures of a picture as Will, but here it is. That's it on the baby front.
In the midst of all this, I am now sick. I went to the doctor Thursday to see if I had strep throat since the girls had it three times over the last month. I was negative, but the doctor wanted me to take a round of antibiotics since I am so close to delivery just to be on the safe side. Also, Isabelle has a Swimmer's Ear Infection now that she has started swimming underwater ALL of the time. So, Nana got to come nurse us all back to health and run my household for a week.

Little Lambs

Anna found what she thought was all of her lambs that she has been collecting and decided she wanted to take a picture. After picture time I know we found about five more in her bedroom. Here is the picture.

The Influence of Michael Jackson

As a child growing up in the in the late 80's it was hard to avoid the influence of Michael Jackson. The photo to the left gives a glimpse into the influence that he had on the Rushing boys. We were very much into the pop icon. We had photos on the wall, all the right clothes, and even a glitter glove. After class today, I came to my apartment to watch the Nightly News and, as you can guess, it was filled with images from the Jackson Memorial Service. While I am no longer enamored with Jackson, it was sad to see an image that reminds me of my childhood gone. The news clip that really made me sad was that of Jackson's daughter speaking a few emotional words about her father. This reminded me that regardless of all the controversy that surrounded Jackson through the years, there is a little 11 year-old girl that will not have the influence of her father as she grows up. It has only been a few years since my dad passed away and hearing and seeing the pain on that little girls face reminded me of the pain of that day in May 2007 when I had to say goodbye to my own father. It was also hard to see the pain of Jackson's daughter without causing me to miss my own family while I am in Texas. It makes me appreciate everyday that I get to spend with my family. My prayer is that I will be a Godly influence for them.

Fireworks

For the fourth of July the girls got sparklers and snaps. Isabelle refused to hold the sparklers but Anna was brave enough to hold them. They did however go through about four boxes of the snaps. It was no Uncle Charlie show, but the girls had a good time.

Bad Birthday Presents

For Isabelle's birthday present she asked for a craft kit. So, after me standing in the craft aisle and deciding what I had the patience to help with and what she could do on her own, I decided to get her one of those little mini staplers. I didn't think it was even big enough to get her finger in. Well about two days into the crafts, she stapled her finger and decided that she wasn't going to staple anything ever again and that she never wanted to play with her craft kit again. I think she is finally over it, but for a while I thought we had come upon the worst birthday present in the world.

Chickens!

Today, Uncle Wicky caught a chick in his front yard and brought it down for the girls to pet. After the girls got over the shock of there being a live animal in the house they agreed to pet the chick with Wicky holding it. For those of you that don't know, my girls don't like animals at all. They are a couple of chickens themselves (hense the title of the post).

The Journey To Baylor

I woke up at 2:30 a.m. this morning to get an early start on the long car ride. There are two reason why I decided to leave that early:

1. There is not much traffic!

2. I still had papers to finish and wanted to make sure I got to Baylor in time to work on them before tomorrow.

Overall the trip wasn't so bad. It took 10 hours overall to get from Mobile to Waco. I listened to several sermon podcast and the music on my Zune. I am hoping to get the papers done so that I can go to bed early and be ready for class at 9:00a.m.

Isabelle's Birthday Party

Isabelle's 6th birthday will be on July 15th. Since I will be in Texas during that time, we decided to have a small birthday party for her while I was in town. When Kate asked Isabelle what kind of cake she wanted, Isabelle replied, "I want a jungle cake with giraffes." With those explicit orders from Isabelle, Kate went to work creating the exact cake Isabelle wanted. Isabelle was really excited about opening her gifts. Along with clothes and money, she also received a suitcase from her Nana & Pawpaw and a craft box from Kate & me. She immediately went to the living room with Anna and Aunt Yank to play with her craft set. She is also excited about having a real suitcase for our trip to Disney at the end of September. While it wasn't huge, Isabelle enjoyed her party and was glad her dad was here to watch her blow out her candles and open gifts.

Swimming at Nana & Pawpaw's

Our family is spending the July 4th weekend with Kate's mom and dad. We arrived in Mobile this afternoon and the girls could not wait to get into the pool. Isabelle was excited about practicing her swimming techniques in the "big pool."


Kate and the girls will be staying in Mobile until Wednesday and I will be leaving early Sunday morning for two weeks at Baylor University.